Sweet Bird of Youth is Tennessee William's atmospheric play of 1959 about Chance Wayne, the one-time heart-throb of his hometown who returns hoping to break into the movies and find the girl he loved in his youth. Accompanied by faded movie star, Alexandra Del Lago, grieving in a haze of drugs and alcohol for her lost youth, he discovers that time is shortly to catch-up with him and wreak a terrible retribution for his past actions. In its exploration of corruption, ageing and the effects of time, the play offers a magnificent study of the dark side of the American dreams of youth and fame. This Student Edition provides an extensive introduction and notes by Katherine Weiss. The introduction includes a chronology of Williams' life and times, a summary of the plot, commentary on the characters, themes, language and context, and a production history of the play. Together with questions for further study and notes on words and phrases from the text, this is the essential edition of the play for students of literature and drama.

A Student Handbook to the Plays of Tennessee Williams provides the essential guide to Williams' most studied and revived dramas. Authored by a team of leading scholars, it offers students a clear analysis and detailed commentary on four of Williams' plays: The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth. A consistent framework of analysis ensures that whether readers are wanting a summary of the play, a commentary on the themes or characters, or a discussion of the work in performance, they can readily find what they need to develop their understanding and aid their appreciation of Williams' artistry. A chronology of the writer's life and work helps to situate all his works in context and the introduction reinforces this by providing a clear overview of Williams' writing, its recurrent themes and concerns and how these are intertwined with his life and times. For each play the author provides a summary of the plot, followed by commentary on: * The context * Themes * Characters * Structure and language * The play in production (both on stage and screen adaptations) Questions for study, and notes on words and phrases in the text are also supplied to aid the reader. The wealth of authoritative and clear commentary on each play, together with further questions that encourage comparison across Williams' work and related plays by other leading writers, ensures that this is the clearest and fullest guide to Williams' greatest plays.

The Plays of Samuel Beckett provides a stimulating analysis of Beckett's entire dramatic oeuvre, encompassing his stage, radio and television plays. Ideal for students, this major study combines analysis of each play by Katherine Weiss with interveiws and essays from practitioners and scholars.

A wonderful collection of never-before-collected one-acts: “The peak of my virtuosity was in the one- act plays. Some of which are like firecrackers in a rope” (Tennessee Williams). Here are portraits of American life during the Great Depression and after, populated by a hopelessly hopeful chorus girl, a munitions manufacturer ensnared in a love triangle, a rural family that deals “justice” on its children, an overconfident mob dandy, a poor couple who quarrel to vanquish despair, a young “spinster” enthralled by the impulse of rebellion, and, in “The Magic Tower,” a passionate artist and his wife whose youth and optimism are not enough to protect their “dream marriage.” This new volume gathers some of Williams’s most exuberant early work and includes one-acts that he would later expand to powerful full-length dramas: “The Pretty Trap,” a cheerful take on The Glass Menagerie, and “Interior: Panic,” a stunning precursor to A Streetcar Named Desire. The plays include: • At Liberty • The Magic Tower • Me, Vashya • Curtains for the Gentleman • In Our Profession • Every Twenty Minutes • Honor the Living • The Case of the Crushed Petunias • Moony’s Kid Don’t Cry • The Dark Room • The Pretty Trap • Interior: Panic • Kingdom of Earth • I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays • Some Problems for The Moose Lodge

A Study Guide for Tennessee Williams's "Sweet Bird of Youth," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

"Land beneath our feet. Got all our blood inside it hasn't it? All that time. Belongs to us.†? On a farm in the middle of nowhere, sisters Becky and Anna try to hold their family together after the death of their mother. Time is always moving somewhere – but here it's very quiet. When they discover a stranger wandering aimlessly across the land, the three establish an unlikely partnership in their determination to survive. Simon Longman's Royal Court debut premiered at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in February 2018.

Performed as a one-woman show, Victim follows the power struggle between prison guard Tracey and criminal Siobhan as they come face-to-face with a notorious inmate. As they both muse on their lives outside the prison walls, we come to learn of their anxieties and their hardships as they confront the realities of prison life. Darkly comic and at times chilling, Victim is a thoughtful reflection on modern life and how easily it can be turned upside down. This edition was published to coincide with Bruised Sky's production at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, August 2017.

The story of the last member of the aristocratic Azcoitia family, a monstrous mutation protected from the knowledge of his deformity by being surrounded with other freaks as his companions, The Obscene Bird of Night is a triumph of imaginative, visionary writing. Among its luxuriance, fecundity, horror, and energy will not soon fade from the reader's mind.